BTOOOM! Episode 7: Virtual Bride

Wednesday, November 28th, 2012

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So, after two episodes of primarily character development, we get an action heavy episode. There is some development but rather minimal. However, we do get some clarification on some things.

For starters, we finally have names for both the Fat Guy and the Bandana Guy. The Fat Guy is named Akechi (his other name wasn’t given). Bandana Guy is name Masashi Miyamoto. And it’s also revealed that Miyamoto is a former Mercenary, which explains why he’s able to track people through the woods without his radar.

Well, enough of the reveals. Let’s talk about the episode. We begin right where we left off, with Sakamoto and Himiko getting married in the BTOOOM! game. Wait, wha…?

Okay, so we start with a flashback to the in-game wedding between Sakamoto and Himiko. Sakamoto wants to meet Himiko in real life but she refuses, saying that their love is pure the way it is. I wonder if any of this staying pure stuff has anything to do with religion or beliefs that Himiko has. She’s talked about wanting to stay pure before but it was when she was either getting raped by Akechi or when she thought she was getting taken advantage of by Sakamoto.

I wonder when this took place in comparison to the incident with the band Judgment Flash back in episode 2 (The Bloody High School Girl). I’m thinking maybe before, based just on her demeanor after it happened. It seemed like she just felt guilty about all of it. Plus, I’m not sure she would have met beforehand anyways, even refusing to send him a picture after being teased by Miho.

It’s possible that she’s just had this vision of a fairytale-like future of everything just being perfect and simple. It’s a logical reason since there are young fans of fairytales (maybe even old fans, too) that think that’s the way life should always be.

Back at the island, we see the confrontation with Sakamoto and Miyamoto. Sakamoto tries to convince Miyamoto to stand down and join his group in finding a way off the island. Miyamoto doesn’t listen but doesn’t go after him either. Instead a Timer comes flying in at Sakamoto, forcing him to jump quickly right into a punch from Miyamoto.

So, who was the owner of the thrown Timer bomb? None other than Sōichi Natsume, the lawyer from episode 4 (Best in the World). Apparently, when he ran away from Kōsuke Kira, he ran into Miyamoto and somehow convinced him to team up.

However it happened, these two clearly set a trap for Sakamoto – though not necessarily for Sakamoto particularly. Natsume would draw the unsuspecting player in and Miyamoto would use his knife to kill the person. However, Sakamoto was quick enough to dodge the attack, causing Miyamoto and Natsume to change their strategy.

However, it seems that the strategy changed even more as Miyamoto refuses to finish off Sakamoto, believing that he can get even more chips than just the one. He even lets Sakamoto run away, with a little help from Himiko’s stun gun.

Sakamoto gets back to the base with only the stun gun in hand – his bombs were taken from him by Natsume. Himiko starts to freak out after hearing that Sakamoto was taking on a guy not using his radar. She tries to leave but gets stopped when Miyamoto arrives.

He wants two things: his gear and the chip from Akechi. Let’s review: the gear was taken by Akechi during the escape in episode 2 (The Bloody High School Girl). He was then killed while trying to rape Himiko. Himiko kept the supplies but his chip stayed on him until Taira found him coming down the waterfall by the stream in episode 5 (Attack). Also, after the initial attack from the Komodo Dragons last episode (Night of Sacrifice), they combined the supplies into one case. So, not only does Himiko not have Akechi’s chip but taking the supplies would also mean taking Taira and Sakamoto’s supplies as well.

Sakamoto tries to reason with him again. And here we find out that Sakamoto is a debugger for Tyrannos Japan, the company behind BTOOOM! — not sure if it pays anything or if he just gets to play the game for free because of it. Anyways, he explains that there has to be a blind spot — a way to get off the island without having to kill one another. Miyamoto refuses to acknowledge the idea.

Before Miyamoto can do anything, Taira lunges, trying to knock him off the base. Miyamoto dodges and slices, causing Taira to start bleeding from his left hand. Nothing was shown either during the attack or afterwards — other than the blood — so nothing is confirmed as to if anything was cut off.

After slicing Taira, Miyamoto turns back to Sakamoto and knocks him off on the ocean side of the base off of a cliff. Himiko is left helpless as Natsume climbs the ladder and Miyamoto corners her. They take Himiko and leave Taira to die.

Sakamoto is shown high up the cliff above the ocean in the branches of trees. Obviously, he was going to survive but HOW did he survive that fall? And more importantly, how did he end up face down when he started falling face up?

Jeff has been a supporter of the website and campaign since the beginning. Joining in for E3 2012, he worked his way up the ranks quickly, making it to the Editing Manager post at the beginning of 2013. Jeff has a wide variety of tastes when it comes to gaming and pretty much likes anything that is quirky, although his favorite genres are Action, Platforming, and RPG. Outside of gaming, Jeff is a musician, being trained as a trombonist for Jazz and Classical music, and holds a degree in Sound Recording.